Golden Means

Golden Means

Music, Translation and the Patersonnet

Chapter:

(p.34)
2 Golden Means

Source:

Don Paterson

Author(s):

Hugh Haughton

Publisher:

Edinburgh University Press

DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748669417.003.0002

This chapter explores Paterson's derivations from and implementations of fourteen-line form, in the light of his quasi-mathematical explanations for its ubiquity. Paterson has paid special attention to the ‘golden ratio’ derived from the Fibonacci sequence, and his association of this with the sonnet has undergone many derivations through his career. It examines Paterson's claim that we ‘arrived at the sonnet as we arrived at the wheel, out of evolutionary necessity’. It considers his craving for flexible symmetries and disrupted sonnet ratios, with particular reference to music and poetry, literary form and translations or variations.

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